Movie Review: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Being an assassin is tough enough without John Wick as your target. That’s a guaranteed loss. In John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum we find out just how much Wick wants to live when vengeance is not the driver. Keanu Reeves’s Wick is still the Baba Yaga of nightmares for his enemies, but now there is a $14 million bounty on his head. Though it’s not dissimilar to the previous films in the John Wick trilogy, it lacks some of the consistency of the first. When we root for Wick, we expect a level of ridiculousness that is met over and over, even allowing for humorous moments. It does not disappoint in that regard, but the story is too thin to justify the length.

John Wick is on the run, and things are bad enough that he must travel halfway across the world in order to potentially save himself. It is inevitable that Wick will die, someday, and that day seems to be coming. He lives in a state of hyperawareness, to the point that he finally begins to wear down. It’s not surprising, as all of the Wick films the place over the course of two or three weeks. At least 90 minutes of its 131 is pure action.

While Wick fights his way out of New York City, the assassin no-kill zone of the Continental Hotel becomes the center of the overarching plot. At the end of John Wick: Chapter 2, Wick killed someone inside, and that requires a reprimand from the international assassin leaders. An adjudicator is sent to investigate both the hotel owner and anyone who has given safe haven to Wick, resulting in many brutal deaths and mutilations.

The choreography is the real star in Parabellum, and we have to give kudos for Keanu Reeves for continuing to perform action scenes himself. If we consider how much work goes into creating fight sequences, it is amazing how unique each one is to the next. We get to see someone get beaten to death with a library book, and another set of people get into a very intense sharp object fight. There are also a of couple scenes featuring ballet dancers. There is so much motion in each scene, and plenty of details that warrant re-watch in slow motion.

Another shout needs to go out to the animal trainers for the film, because ex-assassin Sofia (Halle Berry) has dogs that are some of the coolest on film in years. They also wear dog armor, which is not at all conspicuous in a public space, and is super effective. Dogs are an integral aspect of Wick’s humanity, and some of the best moments in the film come from the authenticity of seeing him interact with them. Every dog here stole the scenes they were in, and I think every person in the film would agree.

It’s also important to remember that everywhere someone with a bounty goes, he is jeopardizing both himself and everyone around him. Why won’t John Wick just give himself up? What if he tried? When he’s asked what his motive is to live, he says, to remember. Remember what? Answer: His wife.

Here’s where things get less clear. His purpose is not to carry a legacy of his family or honor the memory of his wife and puppy, it’s to remember. Does she not have a family outside of John? One of his few actual possessions is a photograph of her. It’s a mystery to me why this would be said but not elaborated on further, as we’re on the third film. It didn’t take much for the audience to sympathize with him from the start of the first Wick, so I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

This is a film that isn’t much more than a series of cool fight sequences, but it would be nice if the emotional core that made watching the first Wick so refreshing to watch could’ve continued here. Even Avengers: Endgame balanced these elements. For such a big action flick, it would be nice to connect more with our hero, especially when the audience knows we’re all in it for the long haul. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum might actually play it too safe.

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“Ratmansky’s extraordinary musical sense... wins out.”—Russia’s Kommersantwith the Kennedy Center Opera House OrchestraRomeo and Juliet“Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian—and the world-renowned company more than lives up to

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“Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian—and the world-renowned company more than lives up to its name with its latest production of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by former Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky, one of today’s hottest, most visionary, and most in-demand dance-makers. The Bolshoi Ballet is celebrated for its daringly athletic and highly theatrical style of ballet. It’s been nearly six years since the mighty company last performed for us, and this time the Bolshoi’s incomparable stars immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy of star-crossed love.

Danced to Prokofiev’s richly cinematic score, Ratmansky’s version shines with the characteristic style that audiences have come to adore from him: quick steps, vigorous lifts, and surprising dashes of humor. Leveraging the Bolshoi dancers’ dynamic range, his staging feels at once both epic and human, a sweeping spectacle that more deeply and poetically explores the young couple’s burning attraction to each other amidst the suffocating circumstances of family feuding in 14th-century Verona. When the Bolshoi tours in 2020, Washington is the only U.S. city lucky enough to host Romeo and Juliet. Don’t miss this remarkable opportunity!

Violent Femmes 10th studio album, HOTEL LAST RESORT, resides among the groundbreaking band’s finest work, simultaneously refining and redefining their one-of-a-kind take on American music, mingling front porch folk, post punk, spiritual jazz, country blues, avant garde minimalism and golden age rock ‘n’ roll into something still altogether their own. Founded and fronted of course by singer/guitarist Gordon Gano and acoustic bass guitarist Brian Ritchie, the Milwaukee-born combo remains as warm, wise and weird as ever before, with such new favorites as “Another Chorus” and “Everlasting You” continuing to mine the vast range of ideas, melodic complexity and organic sonic craftsmanship that has characterized the band’s body of work since their landmark self-titled 1983 debut.

Formed in 1977, X quickly established themselves as one of the best bands in the first wave of LA’s flourishing punk scene; becoming legendary leaders of a punk generation. Featuring vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake, their debut 45 was released on the seminal Dangerhouse label in 1978, followed by seven studio albums released from 1980-1993. Over the years, the band has released several critically acclaimed albums, topped the musical charts with regularity and performed their iconic hits on top television shows such as Letterman and American Bandstand. X’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift are ranked by Rolling Stone among the top 500 greatest albums of all time. The band continues to tour with the original line-up fully intact. In 2017, the band celebrated their 40th yearanniversary in music with a Grammy Museum exhibit opening, a Proclamation from the City of Los Angeles and being honored at a Los Angeles Dodgers game where Exene threw out the first pitch and John Doe sang the National Anthem. In 2020, X celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Los Angeles.

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Today NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has announced the release of a new mixtape titled WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, due out April 2 on XL Recordings. To

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Today NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has announced the release of a new mixtape titled WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, due out April 2 on XL Recordings. To introduce the new project, her first full-length mixtape and release on XL, Yaeji has shared a new animated music video for the lead single “WAKING UP DOWN.” It’s also been announced that this Summer Yaeji will perform live across North America and Europe in which she’ll debut an all-new live show featuring dancers, original choreography and new stage production.

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slowthai knew the title of his album long before he wrote a single bar of it. He knew he wanted the record to speak candidly about his upbringing on the

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slowthai knew the title of his album long before he wrote a single bar of it. He knew he wanted the record to speak candidly about his upbringing on the council estates of Northampton, and for it to advocate for community in a country increasingly mired in fear and insularity. Three years since the phrase first appeared in his breakout track ‘Jiggle’, Tyron Frampton presents his incendiary debut ‘Nothing Great About Britain’.

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Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative

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Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative and influential musical forces of our time, he thought his artistic side had its outlet and was happy to spend any downtime from Radiohead with his family. Plus, he wondered, would it really be necessary? “Thom, Jonny and Phillip are making music,” he says, “and I’m like, ‘The last thing the world needs is a shit album by me.’”

But suddenly a switch was flicked and the songs came pouring out of him. That creative surge resulted in an album of rediscovery and adventure by O’Brien under the moniker EOB that deftly veers from moments of delicate folk to euphoric house, its songs seamlessly pinned together by unswerving melodic hooks and candid lyricism.

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Join LabX and the Cultural Programs at The National Academy of Sciences as they collaborate with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center to host a hands-on activity day for families with

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Join LabX and the Cultural Programs at The National Academy of Sciences as they collaborate with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center to host a hands-on activity day for families with young children, using the ETERNAL sculpture as a platform for engagement. Topics for the ETERNAL Family Day event will range from ocean research and conservation to consumer waste.

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This album was made from January 2015 to December 2019, starting as a collection of vague ideas that eventually turned into songs. I wanted to make something that was different

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This album was made from January 2015 to December 2019, starting as a collection of vague ideas that eventually turned into songs. I wanted to make something that was different from my previous records, and I struggled to figure out how to do that. I realized that because the way I listened to music had changed, I had to change the way I wrote music, as well. I was listening less and less to albums and more and more to individual songs, songs from all over the place, every few days finding a new one that seemed to have a special energy. I thought that if I could make an album full of songs that had a special energy, each one unique and different in its vision, then that would be a good thing.Andrew, Ethan, Seth and I started going into the studio to record songs that had more finished structures and jam on ideas that didn’t. Then I would mess with the recordings until I could see my way to a song. Most of the time on this album was spent shuttling between my house and Andrew’s, who did a lot of the mixing on this. He comes from an EDM school of mixing, so we built up sample-heavy beat-driven songs that could work to both of our strengths.

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Growing up in suburban New Jersey, 23-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Jeremy Zucker has always been surrounded by music. In 2015, he released his first EP as a freshman at

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Growing up in suburban New Jersey, 23-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Jeremy Zucker has always been surrounded by music. In 2015, he released his first EP as a freshman at Colorado College pursuing a degree in Molecular Biology, and by 2017 he had signed a major label record deal with Republic Records. Since then, he has released 4 EP’s with breakthrough singles such as “talk is overrated” featuring blackbear, “all the kids are depressed,” and his biggest song to date, the Gold-Certified hit “comethru”. Overall, Zucker has already crossed over a staggering 1 billion total streams on his catalogue as he gears up for his debut album, coming early 2020.